Caytonia

Caytonia
Temporal range: −
Caytonia nathorstii ovulate structure, Middle Jurassic, Gristhorpe Bed, Cloughton Formation, Cayton Bay, Yorkshire.
Scientific classification
Kingdom: Plantae
Clade: Embryophytes
Clade: Tracheophytes
Clade: Spermatophytes
Division: Pteridospermatophyta
Order: Caytoniales
Family: Caytoniaceae
Genus: Caytonia
H.H.Thomas, 1925
Species

Caytonia is an extinct genus of seed ferns.

Description

Caytonia has berry-like cupules with numerous small seeds arrayed along axes [2]

It was once thought to be an ancestor of the flowering plants, but after its method of pollination was identified, it was re-assigned as a gymnosperm.[3]: 249–250 

Whole plant reconstructions

Different organs attributed to the same original plant can be reconstructed from co-occurrence at the same locality and from similarities in the stomatal apparatus and other anatomical peculiarities of fossilized cuticles.


References

  1. ^ Retallack, G.J.; Dilcher, D.L. (1988). "Reconstructions of selected seed ferns". Missouri Botanical Garden Annals. 75 (3): 1010–1057. doi:10.2307/2399379. JSTOR 2399379.
  2. ^ Elgorriaga, A.; Escapa, I. H.; Cúneo, R. (2019). "Southern Hemisphere Caytoniales: vegetative and reproductive remains from the Lonco Trapial Formation (Lower Jurassic), Patagonia". Journal of Systematic Palaeontology. 17 (17): 1477–1495. doi:10.1080/14772019.2018.1535456. hdl:11336/117441. S2CID 92287804.
  3. ^ Chaloner, W. G. (1985). "Thomas Maxwell Harris. 8 January 1903 – 1 May 1983". Biographical Memoirs of Fellows of the Royal Society. 31: 228–260. doi:10.1098/rsbm.1985.0009. S2CID 72170558.